The NFL announced its 2009 Kickoff Weekend primetime television schedule -- including a Monday night "AFL 50th" doubleheader -- and the Thanksgiving Day national TV tripleheader.

In a tradition that began in 2004, the Super Bowl champion annually hosts the NFL Thursday night season kickoff the following year. This Sept. 10 at 8:30 p.m. ET on NBC, the Super Bowl XLIII champion Pittsburgh Steelers will host the AFC South champion Tennessee Titans, who had an NFL-best 13-3 record last season.

The Sunday night primetime game (8:30 p.m. ET) on NBC will feature a division matchup as the Green Bay Packers host the Chicago Bears. Green Bay and Chicago have won seven of the past eight NFC North titles.

On Monday, Sept. 14, ESPN will host a "Monday Night Football" doubleheader that will be part of the NFL's celebration of the 50th anniversary season of the American Football League. The four clubs competing that night began playing in the inaugural 1960 AFL season. The first game (7:00 p.m. ET) will send the Buffalo Bills to Foxboro to visit the New England Patriots, the decade's winningest team (102-42 since 2000). The MNF nightcap (10:15 p.m. ET) will be an AFC West battle as the Oakland Raiders host the three-time defending AFC West champion San Diego Chargers.

Continuing an innovation introduced in 2006, the NFL will serve up three nationally televised games on Thanksgiving Day.

The early game (Fox, 12:30 p.m. ET) will be an NFC North meeting of the Green Bay Packers at the Detroit Lions. The second game (CBS, 4:15 PM ET) features the Oakland Raiders visiting the Dallas Cowboys in the Raiders' first Thanksgiving game since 1970.

The Thanksgiving primetime game will be at 8:20 p.m. ET on NFL Network with the defending NFC East champion New York Giants visiting the Denver Broncos, marking the first Thanksgiving contest in Denver since 1963.

The announcement of the Kickoff Weekend and Thanksgiving games was made Monday by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell at the NFL Annual Meeting in Dana Point, Calif.

The rest of the 2009 regular-season schedule will be completed and announced in April

WTF! The Raiders got the Thanksgiving slot. That is such bullshit! Why would the broadcaster even WANT the Raiders. No one really cares about them and the Cowboys will be looking at thier season wondering "what happened?" by then anyways. If the Chargers were in it it'd have a whole lot more meaning behind it. F the Raiders.
On another note - YAY! Confidence booster to get the Bolts a-goin'.

WTF! The Raiders got the Thanksgiving slot. That is such bullshit! Why would the broadcaster even WANT the Raiders. No one really cares about them and the Cowboys will be looking at thier season wondering "what happened?" by then anyways. If the Chargers were in it it'd have a whole lot more meaning behind it. F the Raiders.
On another note - YAY! Confidence booster to get the Bolts a-goin'.

Click to expand...

There's these things called ratings, maybe you've heard of them?

The Raiders get tv ratings no matter how much we all hate them. Even thought they suck ***, they still have a MASSIVE fanbase, and a MASSIVE amount of people who hate them and love nothing more than to see them lose. Add those 2 groups together and you get big ratings, esp. on a holiday.

DANA POINT, Calif. -- If the Oakland Raiders are truly going to be different this year (and when I say different, I mean becoming a good team), they will have to set the tone early.

No better time than on opening day at home. For the third time in the four years ESPN has broadcast a "Monday Night Football" doubleheader to start the season, the Raiders are hosting the West Coast game. They will play AFC West champion San Diego on Sept. 14 in the back end of the doubleheader.

In 2006, the Chargers won 27-0 at Oakland on a Monday night game to start the season. Last year, Denver won 41-14 in Oakland to start the season. San Diego will be looking for its 12th straight win over Oakland.

The stakes are immense for the Raiders. If they can beat the Chargers, they can erase the memories of the recent Monday night flops and the Chargers' stranglehold on them. If Oakland wins this game, the Tom Cable era will be flying.

One of the reasons why Cable lost the interim tag and became Oakland's permanent head coach was the fact that the Raiders won their final two games of the 2008 season to finish 5-11.

The Raiders set an NFL record for losing at least 11 games in six straight seasons in 2008. But all the Cable regime is focused on is the momentum that was built at the end of last season. There is reason for hope in Oakland based on those two games.

If the Raiders can go out and win the Monday night opener, there will be great hope. If not, especially if the Chargers wax Oakland, despair will creep in.

The Raiders have a great opportunity to turn the tables early. Let's see if they can do it.

There is no doubt it! We will crush the Oakland Raiders handily. LT will have a field day spawning talk of "the return of Tomlinson?" where everyobdy and their mother will be commenting on LT's night. Rivers should have a career night. The defense will finally get to unveil everything they've been reworking. There is no better scenario for our boys. The first is game is primetime one against a division rival and we will show the world what we're made of.

That would be Jerry Jones. He only wants teams he can crush on Thanksgiving. I'll bet he talked to Uncle Al over in Oakland and made him a deal. After that game, expect Uncle Al to extort a new stadium from Oakland.

Haha! Easy (and I mean really easy) win to start the season. That's what I'm talking about. This season we start with some momentium. BTW - What exactly was our record the last time we started the season waxing the Raiders on a MNF double header?